


Saving Each Other

by Anonymous



Category: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, F/M, Horror, Hunger Games, Survival, Trapped
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-12
Updated: 2021-03-12
Packaged: 2021-03-14 12:28:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 10,164
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29295915
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/
Summary: Lucy Gray had already accepted that she was going to die here in the arena, that sometime in the next few days she would meet her end. But then something else happened — and now there were two of them to carry on the fight.(An AU in which Coriolanus goes to save Sejanus and doesn't escape the arena.)
Relationships: Lucy Gray Baird/Coriolanus Snow
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1
Collections: Five Figure Fanwork Exchange 2020





	Saving Each Other

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Major](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Major/gifts).



Something was happening.

Lucy Gray Baird raised her head slowly from off her knees and tried to listen. It was dark in her corner of the arena, hidden safely away in a blown out part of the stadium, but there was a tiny crack in the damaged wall to her left that let just enough moonlight in that she could make out shapes and shadows and would be able to see if anyone tried to sneak up on her. 

She had found this spot her second day in the arena, and after scouting it for another day to make sure no one else had found it either, it had become hers. Most of the time, she didn’t hear anything or see anyone, and all she had to do was wait for other people to kill each other, like Coriolanus had suggested.

The only downside to her hiding spot was she couldn’t see into the arena from it. The crack in the wall, although big enough, only looked out on to a piece of the bleachers that were behind a concrete pole. But if she scooted carefully along the wall, only about five hundred feet or so, there was a larger hole that gave her a better view.

From there, she could see out into the arena. She could see Lamina up on her boards. And she was able to see when Lamina killed Marcus.

She didn’t usually dare to stay there very long since the shadows weren’t as deep and she wasn’t sure someone from outside wouldn’t be able to see her, but it was handy for keeping a look out when she heard noise or just when she wanted to see what was happening.

Now, though, the noises she could hear coming from the arena were unlike anything she had heard before. She strained her ears to better make out the sounds. Fighting it sounded like. Smashing. Grunting.

But there was something different about these sounds. Almost as if something about them was familiar. But that didn’t make sense.

She wrinkled her nose, pressing her head against the wall to see if that could help her hear better.

Were those voices she heard? Was someone yelling?

She peered all around her. Everything she could see was as completely silent and completely empty as it had been for days. Whatever was happening out in the arena didn’t affect her. She should stay where she was, hidden and safe, and let whoever was killing each other do it and be done with it.

But yet, there was something in the sounds that was calling to her, willing her to get up, to move closer, to see what was happening. And she did need to know, at least a little bit, didn’t she? How could she protect herself from what might be coming for her if she didn’t have as much knowledge as she could?

Knowledge is power; that’s what the Covey had taught her. And hadn’t she used the knowledge of what Mayfair had planned for her to help her prepare for this moment? And hadn’t she been using the knowledge Coriolanus had so graciously given her to help herself survive? She couldn’t let him, or the Covey, down now.

Lucy shifted, putting her knees under her. The sounds were getting louder. Was it safer to stay where she was? It was, right? She should stay. Moving was risky; moving was always risky and it was stupid and dangerous and potentially fatal. 

But there was something else, something telling her she had to know.

She pulled herself to her feet, pressing herself against the wall as she did. She took stock of her location again. Still nothing she could see or hear that was out of place. 

She began to inch her way out of her spot, entering what had at one time been a side hallway. It was smaller than the main hallways she had seen, but there were still too many pieces that branched off to make her truly comfortable.

But the sounds out in the arena were not stopping. It sounded like something was being struck. Or someone was.

She inched faster down the hallway, keeping her ears tuned to whatever was happening out there but also listening for steps or breathing or anything to tell her she wasn’t alone. She had no weapons on her person, probably something Coriolanus would frown at her for if he knew. She had been in a few scrapes here and there back in District Twelve and she had certainly held her own, but could she really hold her own against these other Tributes who wanted her dead so they could survive?

She vowed to herself to maybe find some sort of weapon in the next day, but for now, she continued her slow inching down the hall.

Four hundred feet to go. Three hundred. Two hundred.

There was a loud crash from out in the arena. And then silence. What was happening?

She sped up a little.

One hundred feet to go. Everything around her was still quiet.

Fifty feet to go. Forty. Thirty.

The sound of banging. A cry.

A very familiar cry.

But that wasn’t possible, was it?

Lucy almost leaped the last few feet. She stole a quick look to make sure she didn’t see anyone or anything, but she was as alone as she had always been.

She pressed herself up against the wall, pushing her left eye against the hole in the wall, keeping her right eye free to scan the hallway in case of any danger.

For a moment, she couldn’t see anything, but then her eyes focused. Lamina was still up on her arch, but she looked like she was watching something more toward the south end of the arena.

Lucy twisted her head so she could see in that direction.

She squinted her eyes, trying to see through the dark and the distance. It almost looked like there was a body on the ground, still and unmoving. Had someone been killed?

But there was something else — someone else really. Standing up, against the back wall. She could make out a figure — a figure that looked so familiar, just on shape alone. A figure she often saw in the few moments when she allowed her eyes to close. 

But it couldn’t be. There was no way. He couldn’t be here.

The figure, almost like he could feel her unspoken questions, moved slightly, turning toward her. The light of the moon caught a flash of his face.

She gasped, loud in the silence of her hallway.

_Coriolanus._

It was him. Unmistakeably so. But how … why?

She pressed herself even harder against the wall. He was near the edge of the arena. Was he trying to get back out? He seemed to be pressing against something. Except nothing was happening. 

Lucy Gray watched, a horrible realization beginning to dawn. She could hear the soft sounds of movement in the distance, and she knew other Tributes must be watching him too.

He was alone, defenseless and in full sight. If the other Tributes emerged on him in a group …

Lucy Gray didn’t stop to think. She pulled back from the wall and began to run, as quietly as she could, down the hall she had been hiding in for days. Up ahead was a main hallway and from there was a quick side entrance that would bring her out on to the bleachers.

She made it to the main hallway within seconds. A quick look told her it, too, was still safe, but she didn’t have time for careful inspection. She darted down it, taking the first left and hurrying up the stairs, bursting out through the first door she came to.

Her feet pounded on the metal as she raced across and down the bleachers. She thought maybe she saw movement down toward the center of the arena, but she wasn’t sure. Her eyes were focused on Coriolanus. He was still in the same spot, at the end of the arena, looking like he was frantically trying to find something.

A way out maybe? But why couldn’t he get out?

She ran harder, faster, her feet gliding along the aisles of the bleachers as she darted from step to step, finally, finally making it to the narrow set of stairs that led out on to the field.

She didn’t think; she didn’t even look. Her thoughts were on Coriolanus, on helping him, on saving him. She didn’t have time to worry about people looking for her. Who was she anyway compared to a mentor who didn’t belong in the arena?

She kept to the edge of the arena, to the shadows, but she ran like she was running for her life, darting closer and closer and closer. Past Marcus’ body still on the ground. Had it been moved? She couldn’t tell for sure but she thought so, but she didn’t have time to inspect. Past Lamina up on her wooden poles. She didn’t know if the girl was watching her, forming a plan. Probably.

Lucy Gray kept running, closer and closer and closer.

The figure of the man she had met just a few days before but who she felt like she had known for a lifetime drew closer. She had known it was him, but the closer she got, the more she saw she wasn’t wrong.

His same lean shape. The same dark hair. The same impeccably dressed outfit, so out of place in an arena of dirty kids fighting to the death.

She picked up speed, bolting to the end of the arena. She could hear other noises now. Footsteps, she thought. They were running out of time.

“Coriolanus! Coriolanus!” Her voice echoed in the night air. The man, at the end of the arena, still desperately searching for _something_ heard her. He turned to look, and she saw his eyes widen. Surprise. Shock.

“Lucy Gray … what …” He turned back to the wall. “I can’t get out.” His tone was desperate, frantic. “They were supposed to get me. I can’t ….”

His fingernails clawed at something, but she couldn’t tell what. The noise of other footsteps grew louder. Her heart pounded in her ears.

She took the last few steps to get to his side. They stared at each other, his fingertips still trying to grip whatever he was looking for.

The footsteps were louder now. So loud.

“We have to get out of here,” she said.

He looked away from her, back to whatever he had been struggling with. For a long, painful, terrifying second, she was afraid — afraid he wouldn’t come with her, afraid he would say no, afraid he would keep standing there until the footsteps reached him and he died or she died or they both died.

Instead he looked at her again, then at something over her shoulder. He lunged past her, grabbing something off the ground.

A board, she thought. With blood?

She looked down, gasping. She hadn’t even noticed the mangled body at her feet.

She reached out her hand.

“We have to go.”

Coriolanus took it, his smooth, almost silky fingers resting in her rough ones. Their hands automatically latched on to each other. An unbreakable bond.

She turned, pulled his hand and started to run. He followed.

The footsteps were so loud now, so close.

They hurtled back toward the center of the arena, past Marcus, past Lamina. Her body felt like it was on overdrive. She could feel her heart pumping every bit of blood through her body, the liquid pulsing in her ears as they went. She could feel the sweat sticking to her flesh, even in the cool night air. She could hear over the blood in her ears the sound of her breath leaving her mouth, shallow and short. She could feel Coriolanus’ hand clenched in hers, their fingers melded together, their sweat combining them into an one being. She could feel without seeing the way he stayed closed to her, the way his feet were in time with hers as they ran. And she could see, as if it were the only thing to see, the spot in front of them they needed to get to.

A shout filled the air and then the sound of more pounding.

She didn’t have to look to her left to know more tributes had just burst forth through one of the tunnels, that they were right there, that they were so close.

“Faster!” she hissed into the night air, for Coriolanus and Coriolanus alone to hear, but she didn’t have to tell him. They were together now, a single unit.

They sped up, racing across the arena, the footsteps behind them getting louder and maybe closer. She couldn’t tell, but there wasn’t time to check. She had to focus and not think of the blow to her body, to her head, that could come out of nowhere at any time to end her life.

They were almost to the middle of the arena now.

“Trust me?” she called back to Coriolanus.

“You know I do,” came the reply.

Something glinted in the moonlight. She pulled on his arm, an unspoken direction. He followed her as they made a sharp left, leaving the center of the arena behind and darting into one of the tunnels. 

There were side hallways off the tunnel, a complicated set of mazes that might have made sense once upon a time, but now they led to nowhere and anywhere, and yet she knew exactly where they led.

They raced through the main tunnel. She yanked his hand again and they barreled through a doorway to the right and then another left and another right after that.

They kept running, deeper and deeper into the maze of the stadium. The footsteps behind them weren’t as loud, or maybe it was her imagination. She still didn’t have time to check, only time to pull on Coriolanus’ hand as they ran, right, right, another left, down a hall and then through another door and up a swivel of stairs. Up, up and up, until she pulled them through yet another door and then another and then another to the main hallway she knew so well.

She kept running, praying to the Covey that no one had followed them or was waiting for them, that no one had known where she was hiding all this time.

She saw the archway to her hiding spot and yanked Coriolanus into it. Down the hallway, past the broken wall that could see out into the arena. She should look, but not yet. There wasn’t time. 

They sped the last five hundred yards and then one last pull and there they were, in the dark hidden spot with the cracked wall and the faint glow of moonlight.

They collapsed on to the floor, together. Her, Coriolanus and the board in his hand.

Their breathing was loud in the dark, quiet spot. She thought she could hear the pounding of their hearts and the blood flowing through their veins. Their hands were still locked together, gripping on to each other as if they could never let go.

How long they sat there, waiting for their breaths to catch, for their heart rates to return to normal, she would never know. But slowly, she could hear the outside world again, could see around her.

They were alone. She could see no one near them. There were no other sounds either, apart from Coriolanus’ breathing, which was also now a steady hum in the night.

She strained her ears to listen past the two of them, to beyond the walls. She thought she could hear the quiet sound of movement. Not of a bunch of footsteps but of one person. And a scraping noise.

She lifted the hand that was clasped in Coriolanus’ so it was in the air before them both. He looked at her. “I’ll be right back,” she mouthed, and he seemed to understand.

Their fingers unlatched, and she slid hers out of his. Her hand felt weird. Weightless. Adrift. She pulled herself back to her knees, listening, and then pulled herself to her feet.

She made her way back down the wall, back down the five hundred feet that had taken a lifetime earlier ago, even when she hadn’t known yet it was Coriolanus in danger.

This time the walk seemed faster, now that she was steady again, now that she was once again more sure of herself. She had been so close to danger just minutes ago, to death. They both had. But now that she was back in her safety spot, and Coriolanus — for whatever reason — was with her, the world almost seemed like it had shifted. Like everything had turned over and the fear that had been the main emotion for the last two days had retreated a little. She could think better. Her mind felt sharper, her senses more alert.

She made it to the hole in the wall. She pressed herself up hard against it, letting her left eye scope it out as her right eye kept watch around her.

She saw motion. It took a moment, for the light of the moon to hit her, before she realized what it was. Lamina. She was dragging Marcus’ body back toward the end of the arena, putting it beside the other body she had seen earlier.

She forced herself to think back to what she had seen, to focus now on the details since she wasn’t in a race for her life anymore.

She pictured the boy’s face, his body.

Bobbin. It had been Bobbin. 

She watched as Lamina lined Marcus body up next to Bobbin, and then she watched as Lamina shifted Bobbin’s body too, so they looked like soldiers who died at war.

Lucy Gray supposed in a way they were.

She felt a lump in her throat toward Lamina as she watched the girl work, making sure the bodies were perfect. And then Lamina began to do something else unexpected. She began to climb, scaling a flag pole that was also at the end of the arena.

Lucy Gray watched as the girl tore down the flag and dropped back to earth, before covering the two bodies carefully with the flag. And then Lamina stepped back, admiring her work, and then she retreated, back to her spot and her arch and climbing back up.

Lucy Gray peered around the rest of the arena, as much as she could see through the shattered wall. Where everyone else had gone she didn’t know. Retreated, perhaps? Plotting her and Coriolanus’ deaths? Likely.

But the arena was quiet and the hallways around her were quiet. No footsteps, no breathing, no nothing.

Lucy Gray pulled back from the wall, turned so her right side was against it instead of her left and then retraced her steps back down the hall to the spot that she knew so well.

Coriolanus was waiting for her. She dropped down beside him. She could see the questions in his eyes.

“All quiet,” she whispered. “I think we’re safe.”

“They’re going to be looking for me,” he whispered back.

She nodded. “I know.”

She had so many questions. She knew he had many too. But now was not the time. Not when it was dark and still and she wasn’t sure how far or how much their voices would carry. So her questions would have to wait. His too.

Instead she met his eyes. “Are you okay?” she mouthed.

He took a moment before nodding. “I am now,” he mouthed back.

She almost smiled, despite everything, at the surge of warmth that filled her body. She leaned back against the wall, their shoulders touching. Then she moved her hand, finding his, and their fingers slid together once more.

Neither one of them said anything as they both instinctively shifted against the wall, getting comfortable.

They could talk when day broke. For now, they would be together and would try to make it through the night.

\--  
Day broke to a gray sky and the feeling in the air that it was about to storm. Not that they could see much of the day from where they were hiding. The crack in the wall meant that day made their hiding spot twice as bright as it was during the night, but it was still barely enough for someone to make them out if they didn’t know what they were looking for.

The sense of rain in the air pervaded the atmosphere around them. It was something Lucy Gray had always been able to smell, and she knew it was coming.

She didn’t think their crack would let too much water in, but who knew where else there would be leaks. The rain also had the severe disadvantage of hiding noise — if someone wanted to sneak up on someone else, there would be no better time than in the middle of a storm. Yet at the same time, the storm was sure to hide their voices and they would be free to talk without worry of anyone hearing them in the quiet of the otherwise silent arena.

Coriolanus seemed to understand and be thinking the same thing. They huddled together as the light from the crack grew brighter, signaling the sun’s rise, and then grew darker again as the clouds began to gather and the sky behind them turned from what Lucy Gray guessed was a light gray to a dark one.

They took turns drifting off as the weather shifted and moved above them. It was the first time since she had entered the arena, or really probably since she had been taken from District Twelve and shoved into the train car that took her here, that she felt safe enough to actually fall all the way to sleep. She trusted that Coriolanus would protect her should something happen and wake her if she needed to be on alert.

She didn’t sleep long — the hard ground and her aching body wouldn’t let her, nor would her senses that were permanently stuck on high alert — but the couple hours she did get refreshed her more than the off and on dozing she had been doing on her own.

Coriolanus slept after her. She held his hand as he dozed, watching his face and admiring how young and peaceful he looked. She still didn’t understand why he was here or what had happened last night, and she had a bad feeling that whatever it was probably did not bode well for either of them, but she would get the details when it was safe, and besides, there was nothing she could do to change it now anyway. So instead she comforted herself with the fact that for at least a little while she was no longer alone.

She had come to terms, on the long train ride from District Twelve to the Capitol, that she was never going to make it home, that she was going to die at the hand of another kid who had no choice but to put their own survival first. She was nothing special — sure, she could sing and could stop a roomful of people with her voice and her smile, but that meant nothing to kids fighting for their lives — and her fighting skills were abysmal, apart from a well-aimed punch or two, mostly because, even now, she had no desire to murder anyone in cold blood. If it came down to them or her, she would try, but she really wasn’t sure she could do it, at least not with her fists.

But for now, if this was the end, then by some miracle she had been granted a few more hours with a boy who had changed her world. Sometimes, in the long hours that she spent hiding in her corner, waiting for someone to try to kill her, she thought about him and what life would have been like if she could have met him some other way in some other time.

Maybe if the Covey had been invited to play in the Capitol and he had been in the audience. Maybe if he had gone on a school tour of District Twelve and then had run into each other on the street. Would he even have looked at her, noticed her? Would he have talked to her, taken interest in her? And if he had, what then? 

If the Covey had been invited to stay at the Capitol, would they date? A Capitol boy and a girl from District Twelve? Would he introduce her to his friends, to his family?

She knew the answers to all these questions, knew exactly how all these scenarios would end, if they ever began. She would have been nothing to him, just as she would have been if he was not her mentor.

But yet he was her mentor and maybe something more. He had been the one to give her the locket and the food. He was the one who kissed her. And now he was here, holding her hand, with her, and for that — for whatever reason it had happened, and she knew it had nothing to do with her, but it had happened — she was grateful. If this is when she would die, after getting to spend a few more hours with Coriolanus, then she would accept that, and it would be okay. It wasn’t the forever that little girls dreamed about, but she had never been a normal little girl, and this was enough for her.

She was still thinking that, still mulling over how grateful she felt for Coriolanus being by her side when she least expected it, when he opened his eyes. Outside, the first sounds of rain falling had begun to sound. The light through the crack in the wall was almost as dark as night. A boom broke the air as Lucy Gray and Coriolanus looked at each other — the first echo of thunder racing across the Capitol.

Coriolanus spoke first. “Will we be safe here?” he asked her in a whisper.

She shrugged. “I have been so far. I listen carefully, but no one — as far as I can tell — has even approached this area.”

Coriolanus nodded, looking thoughtful. “We can’t see on the television screens what happens to everyone when they disappear into the stadium,” he said, “but we do see them enter and exit, and everyone seems to come from their own places.”

Lucy Gray thought this over. “It makes sense everyone is lying low, keeping to themselves in here,” she said. “We must all have our safe spots.”

Coriolanus glanced down the hall, to where they had come from. “Out there,” he said, clearly indicating the arena, “is where it gets dangerous.” He looked back at her. “What you did last night was dangerous.”

A small smile broke across her lips. “What _you_ did last night was dangerous,” she corrected, then softly, so as not to be presumptuous, “Do you want to tell me about it?”

Coriolanus’ lips pursed. For a moment, she thought he was going to refuse, and she was going to accept that. He owed her nothing, while she was the one who owed him everything. But then he squeezed her hand — their hands were still entwined, never separating once she had taken his after she’d returned from watching Lamina the night before — and began to talk.

“It was Sejanus,” he started. “He was going crazy over his Tribute. And then when Marcus was killed …”

He told her how Sejanus had come to the arena, how he had been out of his mind, how they had called Coriolanus to come get him, how he had to because Sejanus didn’t have any other friends. He told her how Sejanus broke past the guards and went into the arena, how he was praying over Marcus’ body. He told her how they told him to go get Sejanus, to bring him back, how there was an entrance in the back they could use.

So he did, he told her. He went into the arena and he made it to Sejanus and he pleaded and begged him and finally Sejanus agreed to come, but by then, other Tributes had noticed. He’d pulled Sejanus to his feet, pushed him in front of him toward the back of the arena, had yelled at Sejanus to go through to safety.

By then, Coriolanus told Lucy Gray, the tributes had emerged and they attacked. He had no choice. He grabbed a board that was laying there and beat one, over and over and over, until the boy was still and blood was everywhere.

“Bobbin,” Coriolanus whispered, staring at Lucy Gray, and even in the dark of their hiding spot, she could see the horror in his eyes and across his face, how pale he looked, even now, hours later, as he rehashed this moment. 

His voice shook as he continued. “He was dead. I was sure. I had killed a Tribute. All I had wanted was to get my friend … But I had to get out of there. The commotion was so loud, and I knew others were going to come, were going to attack. So I hurried to the exit, where they had told me to go, but it wouldn’t budge. It was shut and stuck. I tried to pry it loose. I pounded on it. I yelled. But I knew people were coming for me, and I couldn’t hear anything on the other side.”

Coriolanus stopped here and took a breath. Lucy Gray placed her other hand over their entwined fingers and squeezed, encouraging him to tell her the rest, to get it out.

“I thought I was going to die. Right there, in the Arena. I thought that was it.” Coriolanus closed his eyes, letting out a soft whoosh of breath. And then he opened them again and turned to her. “And then out of nowhere, you were there. And you saved me. Like an angel.”

Lucy Gray couldn’t help it. A soft bubble of laughter spilled out of her. “I am no angel, Coriolanus Snow,” she said, but she couldn’t help the warmth she felt flooding her cheeks at his words and at the way he was looking at her.

“You’re my angel,” he said softly. “I would have died out there last night without you.”

“And I would have died in here without you,” she said. “If I had any other mentor, I would have been done for on the first day.”

He shook his head. “I doubt it.”

“I know it.”

“Well, then I guess that makes us even.”

Lucy Gray let out another breath of laughter. “Yeah,” she said, “I guess it does.”

They were quiet for a little bit after that, both of them thinking about how close Coriolanus had come to death the night before, while they listened to the sound of the thunder crashing overhead. The storm was picking up, and the raindrops were getting harder, but although the wall behind them, where the crack was, grew damp, only a few drops actually slid down the wall. For the most part, they were still safe and dry and protected.

“Do you think it was an accident?” she finally asked. At his confused expression, she clarified. “That it was stuck. Do you think it was an accident or were they punishing you for something? Do you think they know what you gave me?”

“I don’t know,” Coriolanus said. “Locking a mentor in the arena seems like a huge step for a punishment when there are so many other things they could do to me that the public would never know about.” He shook his head as he spoke, like he didn’t want to think about what those things were.

“Do you think they’re going to try and get you out? Or maybe they are trying now?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe they are enjoying this. Maybe they are hyping it up for the cameras — a new twist to the Games, they could say. Coriolanus Snow suffered a mental break and broke into the arena to help his Tribute survive the Hunger Games.”

“People would believe that?” It seemed so unlikely. Most of the other Tributes had seemed like they didn’t care at all what their mentors did; it was hard to imagine mentors caring about them anyway. But Coriolanus had cared about her, or he cared about winning. Why wouldn’t the others?

“People believe anything the Capitol tells them,” Coriolanus said. There was a note of bitterness in his voice. 

Lucy Gray could understand that. People in District Twelve hated the idea of the Capitol and everything it stood for, but when they were told to do something, well, almost everyone got in line. Too many people had paid too high a price for going against what the Capitol wanted.

“But is it really good for ratings if a mentor dies in the arena?” Lucy Gray asked.

This time, Coriolanus’ smile was bitter. It twisted on his face, almost scarily so. “Oh, I’m sure they’d paint me as a hero,” he said. “But there is nothing the Capitol loves better than a good tragedy.”

“Well, then,” Lucy Gray said, “I guess we’re just going to have to figure out a way to survive to spite them.”

Coriolanus looked at her for a moment, and then he laughed, but this time, it was full of hope, and maybe relief. “Yes, we will,” he said.

\--

The storm lasted for almost the entire day. By the time the thunder had faded and the sound of raindrops had died away, it was the dark of the middle of the night that shown through their crack. The clouds were still in the sky, covering the moon, and Lucy Gray could barely make out anything in their hiding spot past her own hand and the shadowy shape of the man beside her.

Earlier, after confirming with Coriolanus that he thought it was safe, they had crept down the hallway a little to find an area where water was coming through, cupped their hands together to catch some and slurped it down. She felt better now that she finally had some water in her again, but there was no denying the angry growling in her stomach over the lack of anything else.

“When’s the last time you ate?” Coriolanus asked her softly after her stomach would no longer keep quiet about its frustration.

“I don’t know,” Lucy Gray admitted. “I tried to make what you gave me last as long as possible, but it was a few days ago.”

Coriolanus nodded, once again with that thoughtful expression on his face. She knew when he got that look that she just needed to wait to see what he came up with.

Finally, he looked at her. “When the sun starts to come out, I think you should go out on to the bleachers.”

Lucy Gray stared at him, sure that she had misunderstood what he had just said. “You want me to go … out there?”

He nodded. “You need food,” he said. “And there are a lot of Capitol residents who have already bid money to get you some.”

That was surprising. “Really?”

Another nod. “I think you need to let the mentors help feed you.”

That didn’t make sense. Lucy Gray shook her head. “But you’re my mentor.”

“I think they’ve assigned someone else to take care of you now.”

“That makes no sense.”

“You’re the most popular Tribute the Capitol has. People want to see you, and they want the money they spent to go to help you. And the Capitol wants those people to spend even more money. So in order to do that, they have to have someone who will give you food.”

“And you?”

Coriolanus shrugged. “It’s your food. You can do with it what you want.”

“You know I’ll share.”

“So you’ll do it?” he said. “You’ll go out there?”

Lucy Gray sighed. “You think it’s safe?”

“Not safe,” Coriolanus clarified. “Never safe. But if you stay high, where you’ll be easy for the drones to get to, and you stay near one of the tunnels that lead back inside, I think you’ll be okay for a few minutes. Just make sure no one else is out there when you go. It will take the others a while to realize you’re there, and if you see them, you should be able to get away from them before they can get you.”

“This sounds risky,” Lucy Gray said.

“So is not eating.”

He had a point. “Okay,” she said. “I’ll do it.”

With the plan set, she settled back against the wall and against Coriolanus. They held hands and took turns sleeping for an hour or two. By the time the crack was letting through the gray light of morning she was feeling better from her rest and from having a plan.

“You’ll stay here right?” she whispered to him before she got up to leave. “We can’t risk any of the others finding out where you are. Killing a mentor is probably high on their list.”

“I’ll stay here,” Coriolanus said. “I promise.”

They had already decided that, even though it afforded more risk, Lucy Gray should take the third stairwell out into the bleachers instead of the two that were closest. In case anyone was looking, they didn’t want to give them an idea of where in the stadium they might be hiding.

She started to shift positions so she could stand up, but Coriolanus tugged on her hand. She turned to look at him, and before she could accurately prepare, he leaned away from the wall and touched his lips to hers.

She beamed into the kiss, letting herself sink back down and into his arms. She could have stayed there forever, just kissing him and being with him, but her stomach growled and she knew she had to go.

He pulled back and she stood up. 

“Be back soon,” she said. “With a lot of food for us both.”

“Good luck,” he told her. “You’ll do great.”

She took a step over Coriolanus so she was now closer to the entranceway to the main hallway and pushed herself up against the wall as far as she could get. And then she began to walk. Slow step by slow step against the wall until she came to the gap where she could see out on to the arena.

As expected, the rain had stopped and a few streaks of sun were starting to split through the gray clouds. She could see water still on the bleachers and puddles on the ground, and she could make out a shape under what was probably a wet blanket on top of the wooden poles. She was surprised Lamina had spent the night out in the storm, or maybe she had just gone back to her safety spot as soon as the weather let up.

At the end of the stadium, she could see the two lumps that were the bodies of Marcus and Bobbin. She wondered what the rain had done to them.

That wasn’t important now, though. What was important was what she was about to do. She pressed her eye against the hole in the wall and looked around as much as she could. Lamina was the only person she could see out in the arena. Otherwise, it appeared safe.

She took a deep breath and pushed her shoulders back to prepare herself and steady her nerves. She could do this. And then she began to walk, from the hole in the wall to the main hallway. She looked around but couldn’t see anyone or even anything out of place. A few spots of the floor were still wet, obviously from cracks in the ceilings and the walls that let the storm in, but no footprints leading from the puddles or any obvious sign of another person.

She kept walking, slowly and carefully, making sure not to leave her own footprints and looking around as she went to make sure no one else was watching her. Past the first tunnel that led to the bleachers, past the second, and then pausing at the entrance to the third. She stopped at the edge and peered around the corner, but this, too, was as still and quiet as everything else had been.

She turned the corner and headed up it. A few yards up on the right was a door, which hid a small, narrow staircase behind it. This would lead her up to the top of the bleachers, which she and Coriolanus had determined was the best plan since she would be able to see almost every other area and the drones would easily be able to see her.

There were a lot of stairs, but she climbed them slowly and carefully so as not to make too much noise. She was glad the shoes she had chosen were soft and didn’t make much noise in the best of times.

At the top of the stairs was another door that led to the bleachers beyond. This one was solid, giving her no way to see out. She would just have to take a chance.

She took a deep breath and shoved open the door. It was heavy and didn’t swing far, but it opened wide enough that she could slip outside.

She stood there for a second, shading her eyes against the bright sunlight. It wasn’t even that bright, but it was the most light she had seen in days, and she wasn’t used to it. She felt her eyes water even as she forced herself to look around and down. But from what she could tell, the arena was still as empty as it had looked from when she peered out the shattered wall, with only Lamina and the dead bodies to keep her company.

Once she could see better, Lucy Gray looked around her again properly. Most of the seats up here were rotting and falling apart, but the cement beneath them looked sturdy enough. Not too far away from here was a break in the seats, where attendees would trek up and down the aisles back in the arena’s heyday.

Lucy Gray made her way over there, carefully picking past the decrepit seats until she got to the aisle. There, she carefully spread out her skirt and sat down on one of the stairs, tilting her head back to catch the sun, and making it appear to anyone watching that she was enjoying a few moments of respite outside.

Out of the corner of her eyes, she looked around the bleachers, but there was one no there, and her ears couldn’t pick up any sound of motion coming from any direction either. If someone, other than Lamina, was watching her (and Lamina was either sleeping or pretending to), they had not yet made a move to get to her.

She was only about twenty feet from the door that led back to the stairs. The next closest door was about three hundred feet. But she could make it if she had to. She was sure of that.

It felt like forever that she sat there, on the hard ground, head tipped back, watching in every direction she could see and listening for any noise that didn’t belong, but just as her back muscles began to tense and she began to think about calling it quits and heading back inside, she heard it: the whir of something approaching by air.

She adjusted her position to sit up and look around, pretending to be confused by what was happening, but then she saw it, not too far out, a drone heading straight to her.

Her heart leaped, and she wanted to jump into the air in celebration — Coriolanus had been right. Someone _was_ watching and wanting to help her! — but instead she stayed where she was, trying as hard as she could to keep her face neutral.

The drone moved closer and closer, circling above her. It looked like it was carrying a water bottle. Not exactly what she had been hoping for, but she would take it.

The drone continued closing in. Then, when it was maybe 10 feet from her, its arms opened and the water bottle fell. Lucy Gray reached out to grab it, but the drone’s aim was off and the bottle went crashing into some seats below, hitting a piece of damaged wood and exploding on to the ground.

Lucy Gray’s heart sank as she looked at the water dripping off the seats. She wondered if she should try to drink it anyway, to at least salvage a few drops.

But another sound had entered the sky above. Lucy Gray looked up, and this time she did allow herself to smile. Three more drones were heading toward her, and all of them had something clasped in their arms.

This time the drones didn’t miss. A bottle of ice cold water fell directly into her hands along with two sandwiches. One turkey and one ham and swiss, it looked like.

Lucy Gray smiled at the drones, mouthed thank you as wide as she could, and then untwisted the cap of the water, pouring the ice cold liquid into her mouth. It chilled her as it poured into her throat, but it also refreshed her. Coriolanus had told her if she got water or food to eat the first ones right away, so the mentors would know she could use more.

She picked up the turkey sandwich and began to unwrap it. It wasn’t anything fancy — plain bread and a few slabs of very thinly cut meat with a wilted piece of lettuce and a sad looking tomato slice with a small piece of cheese — but it made her mouth water just looking at it, and her stomach twisted painfully with anticipation.

She took one bite, then another, and then ended up shoving half the sandwich into her mouth. Right then, she thought she had never tasted anything so good. She finished chewing and ate the other half, this time in more constrained bites, but it was so nice to eat food again. She wanted to eat more, lots more, but she had to be smart. She picked up the ham and cheese sandwich and deposited it into one of the pockets on her skirt.

Then she stood up, preparing to go back to the stairwell, but as she did, a burst of noise caught her attention, from the sky and from below. Looking up, she could see more drones flying toward her, this time about four or five, but from below, she could also see Jessup had appeared and he was now bounding toward her.

She started to take a few steps toward him, relief blossoming in her heart. She had wondered where he had been and if he was alive, and to see him here …

But then she froze. Someone was wrong, really wrong.

He was running toward her, but his gait was unsteady, and he was crashing into bars and seats as he came closer. She tried to get a better look, but then she jumped back in horror, her hands flying to her mouth.

She could see something around his mouth, something that looked like foam, and his eyes looked wider than normal, enraged.

She had seen that once before, in a little kid back in District Twelve who had been bitten by a wild dog and come down with a case of rabies.

Rabies. Jessup had rabies, and he was coming straight for her.

She looked up. The drones would be to her within thirty seconds, but the way Jessup was running, he would be to her not much longer after that. She debated. She could run now, get to the door and disappear, but she was going to starve if she didn’t get more food than the one sandwich in her pocket, and she couldn’t leave Coriolanus without food either.

Her choice made, she waited, still glancing worriedly at Jessup as he continued his climb toward her, the foam filling his mouth as he crashed and stumbled.

The drones made it overheard, their claws opening, food beginning to fall. Lucy Gray didn’t pay attention to what any of it was; she just grabbed it and shoved it into her pockets. Once she had grabbed the last item, she turned around and began to head up the bleachers, putting distance between herself and Jessup.

She contemplated what to do. She could go back to the stairs and get away, but what if he followed her? What if he was then left to wonder the halls of the arena and he found her and Coriolanus or someone else? Maybe she should want him to find someone else, but this wasn’t the way she wanted the boy she had considered to be something of a friend to her during this ordeal to go.

She decided to try and lead him away from the stairs. Maybe he would get tired and would lie down and he could just pass away as peacefully as his condition allowed.

Her mind made up, she took a sharp right and started hurrying along behind the seats, away from the door. Jessup saw her and roared. At the same time, another drone appeared in the sky, but this time, it wasn’t headed to Lucy Gray but to Jessup. 

Jessup noticed it too. His reached out an arm out toward it, like he thought he could swat it out of the air, and roared again. The drone moved closer. Jessup yelled more, raising both arms to swat at it. The drone pulled overhead and dropped a bottle of water. It hit Jessup in the head. He screamed furiously as the water bounced to the ground and rolled a little way.

Then Jessup looked back at her, saw her standing there, and she could see the fury and frustration co-mingle on his face. He roared again and then leapt, straight over the seats toward her.

Lucy Gray, not expecting a direct line of attack, screamed and hurried down to the right. 

Jessup hurried after her, moving faster than she thought he should be able to. She looked back at him, to see how much room she had, and didn’t notice the small crack. She tripped, stumbling and falling to her knees.

Jessup roared again and closed the gap.

Lucy Gray scrambled to her feet, her mind now in overdrive. She had to get out of here. Maybe go down to the arena where she could run better? But other tributes could be waiting for her. Or she could go back to the stairway? But could Jessup catch her and follow her? What if he leaped down the stairs?

She didn’t have time to really think, so she kept doing what she was doing, racing across the bleachers and down the aisles to the ground below, but soon she was going to reach the edge of the stadium, and then she’d have to go down to the ground for real or try and cross back against Jessup.

A noise broke into her thoughts. She looked up and her mouth widened. Drones were headed toward her and Jessup again, but not just a few; it look like nearly a hundred drones were all heading their way.

She stared at them as Jessup behind her noticed them as well. He roared and waved his hands.

The first drone passed by over Lucy Gray’s head and dropped a water bottle on to Jessup’s head. He screamed. A second drone followed the same path and did the same thing.

And then Lucy Gray understood. Whatever mentor was helping her was sending drones to Jessup to try and distract him from her. And it was working.

Jessup was screaming and flailing as drone after drone after drone started to appear, dropping bottles of water and bags of food down and around him. Lucy Gray knew she should keep running, but she felt frozen in place, horror-struck, watching as Jessup tried fruitlessly to fend them all off.

But the drones were still coming, and she watched as Jessup stood up on a seat, presumably to get to the drones better. And then it happened, almost as if in slow motion. 

A drone was coming directly for him, toward his face, and Jessup leaned forward to swipe at it, but his balance was off and he had no more control, and Lucy Gray watched in horror as he toppled face first over the seat and then toppled more and more, rolling down, down, down the rows of chairs until he landed oddly on his neck and went still.

Lucy Gray almost sank down on to her knees at that point, almost cried out, but the drones still incoming brought her back to where she was and what was happening.

There was food everywhere, enough to keep her and Coriolanus fed for days. She hurried back to where the drones had been, picking up as much as she could and shoving it deep into the pockets of her dress. Water bottles, sandwiches, fruit, bags of chips, little containers of what might be salads, huge loads of bread. When her pockets were full, she used her skirt, by lifting it up, to hold as much as she could, and once she had collected all she was able to, she took one last look at Jessup, still and broken on the ground, and then hurried back up the stairs and back to her hiding spot and Coriolanus.

\--

Lucy Gray had been right. The food and water she had collected from the drones was more than enough to keep her and Coriolanus decently fed for at least a week. That also meant it was more than enough to let them stay safely hidden in their hiding spot while the other Tributes ventured out and became more and more daring.

They spent a lot of time watching through the crack in the wall next to them and through the larger hole down the wall from them. They watched as Lamina finally met her end through the combined forces of Coral, Tanner and Mizzen, and then watched as Coral and Mizzen killed Tanner right after.

They watched as snakes were let loose in the arena and Circ, Coral and Treech lost their lives. They watched Mizzen kill Treslee with a hacked drone, and then Ash kill Treslee with an ax to the skull.

Until finally all that were left were Lucy Gray, Coriolanus, Ash and Wovey.

“It’s time,” Coriolanus said to her, after Treslee’s death, and Lucy Gray knew there was no other way.

She dug Coriolanus’ mother’s locket out of her pocket, the one he had handed her the last time they had seen each other before she entered the arena. She had known what he wanted her to do with it, without him having to tell her, and when she had gotten back to the zoo that night, she had carefully scraped up the poison around the edges of their cage and packed it carefully into the locket. Then she had washed her hands and the outside of the locket and stuck the piece of jewelry deep into her pocket, and she hadn’t touched it since that day, but she never lost sight of the fact that it was there, waiting for her.

Now, she pulled it out and looked down at it and then looked over at Coriolanus. He nodded, and she reached to her other side and lifted up six water bottles they had kept. Each one had been drunk to maybe halfway, but there was enough water left to attract attention from thirsty Tributes.

She opened the caps one by one and, very carefully, put just enough poison in each of them to kill the person who might consume it, making sure to leave some extra in the necklace in case they needed more. When she was finished, she tucked the locket back deep in her pocket and then filled her pockets with the water bottles.

“Wait here for me,” she said to Coriolanus as she stood up, and he smiled at her.

“You know I will.”

She headed out, pressing herself up against the wall and walking as carefully as she could, down the wall and past the hole to the arena and then to the main hallway. She walked as far as she dared, past tunnels and side halls, until she was deep in the stadium.

It was too risky to continue. Who knew who was watching her and in what condition they were in? So instead, she very carefully began to leave the water bottles, placing them haphazardly on the floor to look like they had fallen from someone’s pocket.

When she was confident the six bottles were in locations where they could be found, she turned around and retraced her steps back to Coriolanus. Now all they had to do was wait.

-

It didn’t take long, and yet it felt like it took forever, but by their calculations, it was maybe twelve hours before they heard commotion coming from the arena. Together, Lucy Gray and Coriolanus stood up, still hand in hand, and made their way from their hiding spot to the hole in the wall. They stood together and pressed their eyes up against the hole and watched as Wovey appeared on the opposite end of the arena from them, coming out of a tunnel into the bright sunlight.

She looked sick. She was pale, and even from how far away they were, they could see she was trembling. She stumbled out of the tunnel into the sunlight, but she barely made it past the entrance before she collapsed on to her knees. Her head dropped, and they watched as she vomited a couple times.

She got back up and started to walk again, but she made it only a few steps before she tripped and collapsed into a heap.

Lucy Gray and Coriolanus stood in the dark hallway and watched Wovey lying on the ground, but she never got up again.

Finally, Coriolanus let out a breath. “One more to go.”

They retreated back to their dark corner, this time curling up together on the floor, listening as hard as they could to any sounds outside. 

It didn’t take as long this time until they once again heard the distinct sounds of someone moving around. Together, Lucy Gray and Coriolanus climbed to their feet, hand in hand as always, and made their way back down the wall. But this time they didn’t stop at the hole. They kept going, to the main hallway, and then took a turn at the staircase Lucy Gray had used the day Jessup had died of rabies.

Together, they walked up the stairs and pushed open the door and came out into the sunlight. They blinked and shielded their eyes and finally spotted Ash down by Wovey’s fallen body.

He saw them, standing there together, and he reached out, his face contorting, whether in fear or rage, Lucy Gray wasn’t sure, but it didn’t matter, because a few moments later, Ash had stumbled forward, fallen to his knees and then plunged face down on to the ground.

He did not move. Neither did Lucy Gray nor Coriolanus, but they squeezed each other’s hands tighter. 

And then they waited.

Finally, something happened. The doors at the end of the arena burst open, and a crew of people walked in, led by a man with a microphone. Lucy Gray could also make out a massive assortment of cameras.

The man with the microphone walked to the center of the arena and stopped, then put the mic to his mouth.

“Lucy Gray,” he called out. “You and your mentor come down here. You just won the Hunger Games!”

Lucy Gray turned to Coriolanus. Part of her was afraid as soon as they moved, they would both be captured and killed, but Coriolanus was smiling, and she saw no fear in his eyes.

“We did it?” she said.

“You did it,” he told her.

“I wouldn’t be here without you. I wouldn’t have made it even a day on my own.”

“You don’t give yourself enough credit.”

She took both his hands in hers. “Thank you,” she whispered. “For everything.”

“You’re welcome. Now, come on, they’re waiting for us.”

“Yes, they are,” she said, and she turned to the cameras and began to pick her way down to the center of the arena — and to her victory coronation — still hand in hand with her mentor and the man she loved.


End file.
